SEOUL (Reuters – South Korean exports increased for a 13th consecutive month in November. A Reuters poll on Monday showed that inflation is likely to rise at a rate close to a decade, as the global energy price remains high.

The median forecasts of 16 economists showed that export-value shipping volumes increased by 27.7% compared to September’s 24,1.1%.

Lloyd Chan, of Oxford Economics, stated that South Korea’s export momentum will have picked up in November due to solid growth in the shipments of semiconductors and petroleum products.

According to data from the last week, exports rose by 27.6% in 20 days compared with a year before, while deliveries of vessels and petroleum products increased by a massive 113.6%, 252.2% and respectively, 252.2%.

According to Monday’s poll, South Korea’s total imported goods grew by 40.5% annually in November. This is faster than the 37.7% growth in October.

Data for the entire month will be available on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. (0000 GMT).

According to the same Reuters poll 19 economists forecast that the consumer price index (CPI), this month, would rise 3.1% compared with a year ago. This is not too far away from October’s decade peak of 3.2%.

Lee Seung-hoon, economist at Meritz Securities said that rising oil prices, rent prices and weak Korea will all have upsides in boosting CPI inflation growth.

He said that the CPI growth would remain elevated at 3.3% until the end of year; such inflation numbers justifies the Bank of Korea’s rate hike over the next few months.

The futures are up about 15% over two months. However, they have fallen since then, mainly due to losses during the previous session, which was triggered by concerns regarding the Omicron coronavirus variant.

According to the BOK governor, last week’s rate increase was still possible. This is after the bank raised its interest rates. It also revised its inflation outlook.

According to 15 economists, October industrial production rose by 0.4% on average compared with September.